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The Koren or Koireng is a small community maintaining its own identity without siding with a particular community or groups. The tribe has its own distinct dialect, culture, custom, tradition and belief. It is one of the unrepresented communities of Manipur. As it has no political backing, the Koireng villages in Manipur remain undeveloped and primitive in nature without basic amenities like health-care, sanitation, communication, education, etc.
This community has faced all kinds of hardship in the present turmoil in the state with threat, harassment and intimidation from different quarters every time. And they are always mistaken to be part of certain social organization on a number of occasions. To remove doubt over it, the following description may be noted.
The unity in diversity is the speciality of Indian culture and progress. It is also the case with the hill tribes of Manipur showing striking similarities in their socio-cultural contents. But by this, it doesn’t mean to suggest that they are of a single tribal community.
Still, the hill tribes represent different levels of cultural attainment and profess different faiths. Thus, the tribals of Manipur differ from one another in all their socio-cultural make-up, speaking different languages or dialects which not only differ from those of non-tribals but also from one another greatly. They are members of different stocks, and they entered Manipur in different waves of migration.
Say for instance, the kindred tribes of Koireng like Kom, Chiru, Aimol, Kharam, etc. migrated to Manipur hills from different directions at different times. However, they resemble each other in very many respects. In spite of this resemblance, the tribes while acknowledging their relationship to one another, keep entirely apart, living in separate villages, and in the past they never intermarried though not so much restriction persists among them in that regard now.
The most important event was that of the Tangkhul migration to Manipur. Their tradition strongly upholds that they migrated to the present Ukhrul district from Samsok(Thaungdut) in the Kabaw valley as it was necessitated by the menace spread by mosquitoes and inhospitable climate of the region, even though some of them went to the district from Makhel in Senapati district in pre-historic time.
Their folk-songs also commemorate it. (R.R.Shimray, 1985). In the same way, the Koirengs after having settled at different 25 places migrated to Thangjing Hill near Moirang from Kolram (Kol=East, Ram=land) believed to be somewhere in Karen state in Myanmar or upper Thailand.
According to Dr. G.A. Grierson in his Linguistic Survey of India, Pt.III, Vol.III, page 21, the valley of Manipur is inhabited by a people who call themselves Meitei. According to their own traditions, the Maya-sang tribe has come from the South, the Khumals from the East, and the Meitheis proper and Luyangs from the North-East. So, the Meiteis and all the tribes arrived in Manipur from different directions at different times to make the land a home to diverged communities when the valley area was swampy.
In the version of Dr.Grierson, “The Kolren or Koireng are a small tribe in the state of Manipur. According to Mr.Damant, they dwelt in eight small villages on the hills north of the valley, and number about 600. They are also found as migratory tribe in the valley itself. Kolren is the name which the tribe gives to itself and Koireng is probably a Manipuri corruption of this name”.
The Kwoirengs or Liyangs, which have been dealt with under the Naga-Kuki, are a different tribe, and the languages of both have very little in common. There is also Quoireng in the list of Naga Tribes of Manipur by T.C.Hodson, having a dialect distinct from those of the Rongmeis, but a great similarity in all respects.
They are the Liangmeis or the present Kacha Naga which is one of the 33 recognized tribes of Manipur. They inhabit all the hills north of the Rongmeis, between the high range that skirts the valley of Manipur and the Barak. Hence, the Quoireng and Kwoireng are of one entity to mean the Kacha Naga tribe of Manipur.
In the Lushei Kuki Clans by Lt.Col.J.Shakespear published under the orders of the Govt. of Eastern Bengal and Assam in 1912 AD at page 148 of Chapter III, the Kolren/Koireng is referred to as Kolhen which must have been a mistake caused by multiplicity of pronunciation among the interpreters of the time.
Such multiplicity of spelling or pronunciation is bewildering, and they sound a little strange for the youngsters today. Shakespeare borrowed Thadou name for Kolren. There is no confusion about it. Now, Kolren has been shortened to Koren by its own people, for which also, no further explanation is required.
It was never possible for the writer to meet the Kolren people in person when the book was written on the sources collected by officials in the Manipur administration. In that book, some clans appeared in Manipur as early as the 16th century. The Koirengs were not among the clans or tribes who entered Manipur at that period of time.
The fact that the Koirengs had lived in the hills of the South of Manipur centuries earlier was not conceived by the Political Agent who solely depended on hearsay and his hill interpreters. For example, Babu Biswarup, a clerk in the hill section of Manipur Administration went to Kharang Koireng (the present day Kangchup foothill) to collect specimen of Koireng dialect in 1858 AD, and Nathor Nath Banerjee, also a clerk in the hill section collected some folk-tales from the Koirengs.
There is a strong tradition among the Koirengs that the divine ruler of Moirang, Thangjing Koren Lai took a Koireng woman as his wife. It is said that the divine ruler was fond of a Koireng song called “Yeihita” sung by youths, away from homes to work in the fields and woodland around the village at Thangjing Hill.
Whenever the song was sung, the divine ruler meticulously silenced every living creature like fowls and animals, and stopped even the blowing of the wind to enable him to listen to the melody.
The reasonable claim of the present generation of Koireng, that they were the first to worship the deity, is strongly supported by the chronicle when there is a clear mention of “Thangjing Koiren Lai” at page 33 of Moirang Ningthourol Lambuba by O.Bhogeshwar. The only problem is that Koireng is mispelt as Koiren in which the letter “g” only is missing from the name of the tribe.
But the chronicle of Manipur which occurred mainly at the Imphal valley has not dealt with the Koirengs fairly; obviously of communication bottle-neck Though no adequate mention of the Koirengs is made in the royal chronicle of Manipur called Cheitharol Kumbaba, they occupy a unique place in the chronicle of Moirang, depicting their bravery and courage in their fight with the Moirang King.
In the second part of MNL at page 147, there is a sufficient mention of the Koirengs fighting with the Moirang warriors during the reign of Puriklai Nungnang Telheiba. “From the beginning, Koireng village is within my tributary land, and now without due respect, the Koirengs have devastated Mende village”---said Telheiba.
A long drawn and fearful fight began. The Koirengs fought back with all their might without retreat. One after the other, the best of warriors of both sides fell fighting. The Meiteis (as written in the chronicle) could not withstand the more advanced Koireng fighters working a miracle when they came to fight with them face to face at the batte-field.
Telheiba was enraged by such a crushing defeat at the hands of a comparatively smaller tribe. Riding a horse in lightning speed, he stormed the Koireng fort, and destroyed it ruthlessly. The fort being ravaged, the Koireng warriors ran helter-skelter to fall flat. After their debacle, it was possible that the Koirengs were driven out of Moirang, probably of their constant threat posed to the kingdom.
When they left Moirang for different directions, their might had diminished greatly, also with a sudden decrease in their population which could not ever grow to its earlier level. The tale, that their constant fight with the Moirang king and his curse, and their tragic fight with a horde of Hmar at Tongkhuo were responsible for the decrease in their population, is reliable.
In their lamentation, the Koirengs still recall the tragedy that occurred at Tongkhuo where blood of the slain Koireng fighters washed away many paddy pounding implements of the village. In course of their long march for different destinations, out of eight clans, as many as six of them were absorbed into other communities. What is clearly known is of Thamthu clan which was merged with Hmar community. Only a small fraction of the Koireng population survives till today.
Another proof that the Koirengs had once settled at Thangjing Hill is supported by B.C.Allen in his book on Manipur: Population (1901 Census). Thus “other minor tribes are the Kom and Koireng who occupy the hills, which overhang the valley near Moirang”. Perhaps, the British Officer did not know the name of the hill and he never bothered to know it either.
The Koireng faced all the onslaughts before they finally arrived at Thangjing Hill where they settled at different periods. They abandoned it for a long time, and returned there to settle again, left it and returned in search of more hospitable land, and so on.
Eventually, they left Thangjing Hill when a raging inferno which broke out from the ambers thrown over a pile of husks by an old woman called Chongbempi, gutted the entire village. Then, they moved eastward to Laimanai where they dispersed for different directions and from there some of the clans proceeded to Ngangkha Lawai near Moirang. And the Koirengs who settled at the hill overlooking the valley near Moirang on the arrival of the British were the remnants of the Koirengs who left Thangjing centuries ago.
This is what has been called the pride of the Koireng people in their claim to show that they were one of the earliest of known tribes of Moirang Kingdom like the Chothe, the Kabui, the Moyon, the Tikhup, the Kharam(now a recognized tribe of Manipur and Mende(now extinct).
It is unfortunate that the Koirengs were grouped with the Lushei Kuki Clans by Shakespeare on mere presumption. He was the Bara Sahib of the Lusheis who called him Thangliana. Shakespeare’s findings about the Koirengs are highly contradictory to Moirang Ningthourol Lambuba which is the most authentic century old royal chronicle of Moirang.
No historian or writer of insight has ever challenged the authenticity of the chronicle so far. The Koireng, the Kharam and the Mende who are sufficiently and vividly referred to in the chronicle of Moirang were not part of the migration nor were connected with the clans that arrived in Manipur in the early sixteenth century in any form.
As of the Koireng village polity, the chief of village is called Khullakpa (Khullakpa in Koireng) who is the nominal land owner. The land actually belongs to the villagers who are divided into various clans. The functions of the chief are numerous but he is assisted by a body of councilors who are heads of the clans in the village.
The Khullakpa doesn’t rule on his own as he is bound by myriad Koireng customary laws. His temporal power is much limited. This is the distinct point the Koireng greatly differs from the Thadou-Kukis and Mizos as they are organized far more democratically than the latter.
Amongst the Thadou-Kukis and Mizos, this is not the case; their hereditary chiefs or Lals/Hausas had a very considerable degree of power, and receiving revenue in kind and in service from their subjects in the past. The yearly service obligatory on the village was preparing a portion of ground for the chief’s cultivation, sowing, weeding and reaping it. They also built his house and did many little jobs for him besides. That kind of power still prevails to certain degree in some other forms.
But then, of course, the investigation, it is believed, doesn’t imply a prying into other people’s affairs: it is entirely an eagerness to discover the uniqueness of every tribal village polity.
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** The article was published on 1st Feb, 2007 in The Sangai Express
* Rongreisek Yangsorang contributes regularly to e-pao.net .
You can contact the writer at rongreisek(at)rediffmail(dot)com .
This article was webcasted on 06th August 2007.
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